Block 11 at Bergen-Belsen KZ/Gedenkstätte

Built from October 1941 as part of the Soviet POW Camp in Stalag XI C/311.

In mid-July 1943 this block was home (along with Block 10) for approx 2300 - 2500 Polish Jews who were in possesion of Latin American documentation of "very dubious quality". These prisoners were not required to work and kept in strict isolation. Many were later transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau to the effect than by July 1944 only 350 of these prisoners remained.

In July 1944 Block 11 became, along with Block 10, the Sonderlager (Special Camp) and Ungarnlager (Hungarian Camp).

...there were 12 sections and a washroom in each.....The beds were made of wood, three tiers high, and the mattresses were plain burlap bags filled with straw. There were about twenty sets of beds in each room, housing sixty men and boys over 12 years old.[1]